Alphaeus of Jacob
Judean of the race of David, he was probably born in Bethlehem, like his younger brother Joseph. Following political unrest, they emigrated some 30 years ago to Nazareth in Galilee[1] :
Thaddée (one of his sons) recalls the paternal possessions in Judea from which they were driven, losing much of their fortune.[2]
This paternal uncle of Jesus was the eldest of Saint Joseph, his youngest by about fifteen years. He married a Galilean woman: Mary, daughter of Cleophas. They had four sons, whom the Gospels call Jesus' "brothers" according to the custom of the time: Joseph, Simon, Jude and Jacques.
The first two, Joseph and Simon, are married with children. Their wives are the Lord's "sisters." The last two, Jude and James, are among the twelve apostles.
Alpheus is not to be confused with Clopas or Cleophas, as a long-standing tradition has it. On this point, read the paragraph below.
Character and appearance
At the beginning of Jesus' public life, he was 80 years old. His authoritarian and stubborn character does not improve. His illness makes him cantankerous. His younger brother Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary, had death a few years earlier, so he claims to have a say in his nephew Jesus' conduct.
His encounter with Jesus
Alpheus opposes Jesus, whom he believes to be a madman, causing scandal for the family. He is joined in this by his two eldest sons, Joseph and Simon.
This acrimony tortures his wife and the last two sons, already believers.[3]
Oscillating between curse and recognition, old Alphaeus makes life impossible for those around him.[4] It's an opportunity to gauge the devotion of the Virgin Mary and the compassion of Jesus: this attitude doesn't put them off.
He died in August 27, his first year of public life. His death frees James from his filial commitments, allowing him to join his brother Jude in following Jesus.
"Alpheus died calling me" Jesus tells them to calm theanguish provoked by their father's hostility to Jesus.[5] Alphaeus' two other sons, Joseph and Simon, would only join Jesus at a later date, after long questioning.
His name
Two etymologies clash:
- Alphée (Halphaï) name of Semitic or Aramaic origin.
- Alphée, Greek transcription of the Aramaic name Chalphi[6]
Where is it mentioned in the work?
EMV 14EMV 25 EMV 38 EMV 51 EMV 57 EMV 93 EMV 95 EMV 99
EMV 100 EMV 104 EMV 105 EMV 150
EMV 577
Cleophas or Alpheus?
The phrase in John 19:25, that "Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene" has led to the wildest of suppositions. In the Légende dorée, Jacques de Voragine sets out a genealogy according to which Anne, the Virgin Mary's mother, had three husbands, from whom she had a second Mary, wife of Alphée and mother of four sons: James, Joseph, Simon and Jude.
If the ending is true, the path is distorted by the statement of Eusebius of Caesarea, speaking of Simon, second bishop of Jerusalem:
He was, it is said, a cousin of the Savior. Hegesippus[7] indeed relates that Clopas was Joseph's brother.[8]
This "said one" that turns into a reliable source, is the danger of extrapolations from isolated data.[9] St. Jerome's Vulgate, like the New Vulgate of 1979 both say the same thing:stabant autem iuxta crucem Iesu mater eius et soror matris eius Maria Cleopae et Maria Magdalene.They do not specify the relationship, which can be validly translated as wife of Cleophas or as daughter of Cleophas, which is what Maria Valtorta retains. This latter explanation naturally makes it simple and coherent to assert that among the Lord's "brothers" was the apostle James, son of Alphaeus.
Notes and references
- ↑ In 35 BC, the Hasmonean revolt broke out against the Herodians. The former were the reigning dynasty descended from the Maccabean brothers who drove out the Greek Seleucids, desecrators of the Temple. The latter were the followers of Herod the Great, who seized power by assassinating his wife, a descendant of the Hasmoneans. View Family Tree. From this we deduce that the ancestors of Alphée and Joseph, foster father of Jesus, must have been supporters of the legitimate Hasmonean dynasty.
- ↑ EMV 404.4
- ↑ EMV 95.5
- ↑ EMV 100.3/6
- ↑ EMV 253.3
- ↑ 1 Maccabées 11,70
- ↑ Hegesippus (born around 115 in Jerusalem and died in 180) was a 2nd-century Christian writer whose history and writings are mainly known to us from what Eusebius of Caesarea reports in his Ecclesiastical History, as the writings of Hegesippus have disappeared.
- ↑ Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, 3,11. 'Eusebius of Caesarea' (c. 260 - c. 339/340), theologian and historian, was born in Palestine, and is nicknamed the ''Father of ecclesiastical history'.
- ↑ John 19,25